Dear Friend,
My name is David, and I need your help. I am launching a new website www.esl-education-network-online.com I need some suggestions, comments, questions,
criticisms, etc regarding the site.
I tried to make it as interactive as possible. Each section of the
site allows you to chose the topic that most interests you, and ask
your question and tell me what you think.
You don't need to worry that your name and e-mail will be collected
just to sign you up for the site newsletter. They are not. You have
to specifically request it on the ezine sign up forms. So, you have
nothing to fear from me in that regard.
I would just like some feedback.
Just go to www.esl-education-network-online.com, read the home page,
and go to the section of the site that seems most intriguing to you
and fill out the feedback form. Each page is short and sweet with no
filler.
The site is for teachers of other foreign languages also, but I had
already registered the domain when I realized what I had done. So, I
decided just to go with it. It is just that ESL happens to be what I
teach.
Thanks so much for your help in advance. I really appreciate it.
God bless!
David A. Bailey, Jr
<i>David Bailey shares his best little known and secret teaching
ideas, stories, projects, plans and hot new teaching products and
services. Learn the latest ways to teach ESL and influence your
students that really work. No filler, just the facts about new ways
to get fast results in the ESL classroom – delivered daily. SERIOUS
ONLY.</i>
Could you please give me a hand?
Moderators: Dimitris, maneki neko2, Lorikeet, Enrico Palazzo, superpeach, cecil2, Mr. Kalgukshi2
Ah, didn't realize you'd posted twice (the first link here works, unlike the other post.) I sent you a PM about a few things I found. One other thing I did notice, however, is that under the "What Kind of Information about ESL Education Would You Like to See Here" the choices are:
early childhood education
elementary education
high school education
business education
There is no mention of adult education, postsecondary education (for me there is a difference between "adult education" which is non-credit, and "postsecondary education" which I classify as credit, degree-oriented, or language institutes) I don't know if there would also be any difference between teaching ESL or EFL, or if we use the terms similarly these days, since this isn't my area of expertise.
early childhood education
elementary education
high school education
business education
There is no mention of adult education, postsecondary education (for me there is a difference between "adult education" which is non-credit, and "postsecondary education" which I classify as credit, degree-oriented, or language institutes) I don't know if there would also be any difference between teaching ESL or EFL, or if we use the terms similarly these days, since this isn't my area of expertise.
Hi Dave,
At the moment I can't quite see where your site is going- it seems to be zero-content and all filler at the moment. It's a good idea to have a comment form on each page, but if there's no content there to fire browsers' imaginations, or just for them to comment on, I think you'll have a hard time getting them to contribute. Maybe I'm wrong.
Don't take offence, this is just an obesrvation, but my first impressions on looking through your site told me, "this guy is trying to sell something." I didn't see what it was until I got to the "supercharged, nitroboosted niche business book full of secrets" on the last page. It looks like an attempt at creating a story as a vehicle to peddle the kind of rubbish that is sold all over the net. The drawn-out two-year-miracle success story on the front page has sales pitch written all over it.
If that's not the aim of your site, I'd change tack as there are plenty of well-developed EFL/ESL sites giving mountains of free advice from exprienced teachers all over the net. Dave's is one of them. There are even commercial sites, like Macmillan's www.onestopenglish.com, that have vast amounts of free, professional materials. If you have a commercial future in mind for your site, you'll need to at least proofread it thoroughly.
You'll also have trouble selling your miracle turbo book on that site- most EFL/ESL teachers are pretty wise to their own market, and they're likely to have enough wordly wisdom to wonder why you're not out there taking advantage of all the niche market goldmines in your book. If you really wanted to make a 'helpful' site, you could trawl the good ideas out of the book and post them in your own words. If it's not a book about making money from teaching English, best to remove it from your site as there is a risk that it will totally remove the little credibility that an otherwise empty site could possibly have.
I think that most teachers will look at any 'incredible miracle success stories' of a two-year path to fluency with a sceptical eye anyway, as they usually develop their own approaches over time, and find what works best for their own students. Teaching is an ancient profession, and the chances of somebody stumbling upon the ideal (or ever finding an 'ideal') method or approach are extremely slim. You may have been incredibly lucky to have come up with the universal cure-all for teaching English, but unless you part with that actual information instead of just telling us all that you have it, I doubt if you'll convince anybody. Especially if you don't fix the typos and spelling errors on your site.
Sorry if I've been a bit harsh, I may just have slightly misinterpreted what seems like another manifestation of the kind of get-rich-quick attempt that we're all so tired of on the net. If you are serious about 'helping teachers', I'd at least reduce advertising to banners and links, and instead of just trying to gather suggestions, put some of those great ideas of yours into the public domain.
All the best.
At the moment I can't quite see where your site is going- it seems to be zero-content and all filler at the moment. It's a good idea to have a comment form on each page, but if there's no content there to fire browsers' imaginations, or just for them to comment on, I think you'll have a hard time getting them to contribute. Maybe I'm wrong.
Don't take offence, this is just an obesrvation, but my first impressions on looking through your site told me, "this guy is trying to sell something." I didn't see what it was until I got to the "supercharged, nitroboosted niche business book full of secrets" on the last page. It looks like an attempt at creating a story as a vehicle to peddle the kind of rubbish that is sold all over the net. The drawn-out two-year-miracle success story on the front page has sales pitch written all over it.
If that's not the aim of your site, I'd change tack as there are plenty of well-developed EFL/ESL sites giving mountains of free advice from exprienced teachers all over the net. Dave's is one of them. There are even commercial sites, like Macmillan's www.onestopenglish.com, that have vast amounts of free, professional materials. If you have a commercial future in mind for your site, you'll need to at least proofread it thoroughly.
You'll also have trouble selling your miracle turbo book on that site- most EFL/ESL teachers are pretty wise to their own market, and they're likely to have enough wordly wisdom to wonder why you're not out there taking advantage of all the niche market goldmines in your book. If you really wanted to make a 'helpful' site, you could trawl the good ideas out of the book and post them in your own words. If it's not a book about making money from teaching English, best to remove it from your site as there is a risk that it will totally remove the little credibility that an otherwise empty site could possibly have.
I think that most teachers will look at any 'incredible miracle success stories' of a two-year path to fluency with a sceptical eye anyway, as they usually develop their own approaches over time, and find what works best for their own students. Teaching is an ancient profession, and the chances of somebody stumbling upon the ideal (or ever finding an 'ideal') method or approach are extremely slim. You may have been incredibly lucky to have come up with the universal cure-all for teaching English, but unless you part with that actual information instead of just telling us all that you have it, I doubt if you'll convince anybody. Especially if you don't fix the typos and spelling errors on your site.
Sorry if I've been a bit harsh, I may just have slightly misinterpreted what seems like another manifestation of the kind of get-rich-quick attempt that we're all so tired of on the net. If you are serious about 'helping teachers', I'd at least reduce advertising to banners and links, and instead of just trying to gather suggestions, put some of those great ideas of yours into the public domain.
All the best.